Why are my pre comps linked?

[Daniel18s]

Hi!

So I have just started creating a neon effect and would like to add a flicker to the neon text but when I do so the neon wires flicker too. This might not make sense if you're just reading this but I've recorded the issues to make it easier to understand.

What I'm trying to achieve here is neons turning on and off without the wires also flickering.

If someone could help me with this I'd really appreciate it and I'm sorry if similar posts already exist, I just don't really understand how to fix this.

Thanks,

Daniel

[Mylenium]

I'm honestly not even sure what I'm looking at. Your clip isn't really useful since we can't see the keyframes for the flicker or deduce other things. In fact I can't even see any wires, but that may be down to the MPEG compression. You have to do a better job at telling us what actually is going on.

Mylenium

[Daniel18s]

Ah sorry about that, basically it seems like my pre comps are linked, whenever I edit one all of them change. I hope that makes sense.

Daniel

[P.M.B · Accepted solution]

I'm just guessing but it sounds like you duplicated the comps in the layer stack instead of the project panel, which doesn't really create a new comp, it just creates an "instance" of the existing comp.

To actually creat a new independent comp you need to duplicate it in the project panel and then add that new comp to the layer stack.  Then you can change each independently.   There's also script called True Comp Duplicator (or something) that will also duplicate all the compositions dependencies like files and assets.  

Remember that your comps and files actually exist in the project panel, not the layer panel.   If there is one file (or comp) in the project panel then any changes you make to it will show up in every instance of the file or composition in the layer panel.

Hope that wasn't worded "confusingly"  :O)

[Daniel18s]

I think that is the issue here, I will start doing what you suggested for my other comps. 🙂 I did manage to get around this issue though, what I have done was, instead of adjusting the opacity of the elements inside of the pre comps I adjusted the opacity of the overall comp. So in other words, I didn't double click the pre comp, I selected the pre comps I wanted to make changes to and then pressed "T" to pull up opacity. I'm not really sure what the difference between opacity inside and outside of pre comps is but I managed to fix the issue.

I know I wrote a lot but I hope you guys know what I was struggling with and how I fixed it haha. I'll be sure to make duplicates inside of the project panel from now on!

Thanks,

Daniel

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

There are some keyframes somewhere that make the wires flicker. Find them and delete them. If you cannot figure out how to delete them, Pre-compose all of the layers except the background, split the pre-comp just before the neon is going to turn on (Shift + Ctrl/Cmnd + d), then apply Layer/Time/Freeze Frame to the first part of the animation)

When you post screenshots or record videos of problems, make sure both the columns and switches columns are visible by checking the first two icons at the bottom left corner of the timeline. If layers are parented to each other, reveal the Parent/Links column(Shift + F4). Then select the problem layers and press the 'u' key twice to show all modified properties of the layer.   We can now see what you are doing. 

Including at least a basic workflow description is also a good idea. Without details, you might as well ask us, "Why is watermelon?" 

[Daniel18s]

Ya I'm really sorry about my video and explanation earlier I was just so confused. So I've just deleted the flickering on the wiring but that caused my actual flicker to disappear too.

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

Split the layer (Shift + Ctrl/Cmnd + D) before you want the flickering to start, then add the flickering to the second half of the shot. Problem solved.